Book Image

Real-Time Animation with Adobe Character Animator

By : Chad Troftgruben
Book Image

Real-Time Animation with Adobe Character Animator

By: Chad Troftgruben

Overview of this book

Adobe Character Animator is a power app for non-animators that provides easy rigging and easy-to- understand tools that enable you to create entertainment or business videos in no time. This guide to Character Animator gives you a comprehensive overview of the app, helping you learn the entire process—from importing a character designed in Adobe Photoshop to animating a sequence. Complete with background art, multiple character rigs and Character Animator project files, this book will show you how to animate a scene in Character Animator from start to finish. Starting with a character PSD from another artist, you’ll organize and condense the file to prepare it for rigging and animation. From there, you’ll systematically rig the character while exploring advanced behaviors and triggers to animate a complex scene that takes advantage of the app’s best features. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to create appealing animations in Character Animator for any purpose.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Part 1: Preparing Character Art for Rigging
5
Part 2: Rigging Character Art for Animation
11
Part 3: Animating and Refining Your Scene

Mixing actions on the timeline

So, we have our walk animation set up the way we want. But how do we record it on the timeline? Can we mix other actions while doing this? Well, let’s take a look at trying to record some basic animation. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Make sure you’re on the Record tab.
  2. For the Walk behavior, switch the Mode option to Left & Right Arrow Keys:
Figure 9.13: We will use the arrow keys for this test

Figure 9.13: We will use the arrow keys for this test

  1. Press the Record button above the timeline.
  2. Once the countdown completes, the timeline will scroll and anything you do will record. In this case, move the character with the left and right arrow keys.
  3. After about 10 seconds, press the Stop button.
  4. You should now see, below the puppet, your recorded frames for the walking animation:
Figure 9.14: The keyframe input is shown on the timeline

Figure 9.14: The keyframe input is shown on the timeline

So, what happens if we want to, in the middle of the animation...